Hunger Strikers Demand Release as Virus Surges in ICE Jails

People being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE jails are holding work strikes and hunger strikes over the lack of access to personal protective equipment or quality medical care, and to demand their release.

Democracy Now! speaks with Joe Mejia, an asylum seeker who was among a group of prisoners at Yuba County Jail in California who led a hunger strike while he was held there for nearly 11 months. "That place is dangerous," Mejia says. "It is a death sentence to detainees, especially right now with the coronavirus."

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